Recursive Impacts of Algorithmic Management on Trust and Employee Productivity in Professional Work Settings

Abstract

This research proposes a framework that describes the influences of algorithmic management on trust and worker productivity. The framework illuminates the presence of a powerful, recursive force that exhibits both enabling and inhibiting effects of algorithms on trust and explains the consequences for employee productivity. Our findings result from an in-depth single case study that investigates the dynamics of adopting algorithms for the purposes of managing employees in professional work settings. Drawing on advances in Actor-Network Theory, we observed that algorithms mature from being enabling tools to emerge as equal actors that both influence and are influenced by the trust relationships. This research advances algorithmic management and trust theories by describing this phenomenon in terms of unexpected effects on employee-to-employee and employee-to-algorithm trust and identifying its impact on worker productivity.